A bit of a 'word ramble' today...quite a bit of nothing in particular! lol

In a recent post, I showed photos of some beautifully knitted jumpers that had been made for K4BN to give away to the needy. I'd also like to share with you something written by Karen Croke (the founder and organiser of K4BN) after meeting up with someone who had received a jumper from us. Once again Karen was doing something for the less fortunate in our community. She, and her DH Peter,  had gone  to help out in Aunty Rene's Kitchen which makes sure that needy people in the inner city suburb of Spring Hill don't go hungry. This is what happened...

'One lady, came up to me and asked if she could give me a hug. She was wearing a jumper that we had given her during winter. She said she wore it heaps, yet it still looks if really good condition, it was a blue denim colour from what I could see in the dark, with "baubles" knitted into it! She told me that her daughter had recently had her first child, and because of that the daughter mellowed and found mum and asked her to come and see the baby. She was wearing the jumper when she held him, and said that he kept on touching the "bobbles" on the jumper. She doesn't seem him regularly but when she does she always wears the jumper. Says she washes it by hand, sometimes she doesn't have detergent or anything, so its only plain water, but her obvious joy at having that jumper and the fact that it is a bond with her grandchild was quite emotional! 

Hopefully her daughter will allow her to see her grandson a bit more regularly.

It certainly shows that what we all do is so greatly appreciated.'

I really admire the members who knit jumpers, especially those to fit adults. There is so much work and yarn involved, but I guess all members have a part to play. Many of us know each other's 'specialities' and set aside particular yarns from donations for that member. 

Now as well as knitted, sewn and crocheted items, K4BN provides hundreds of toiletry bags (a.k.a. hygenie packs) to the needy each year. At the recent Scarborough Knit and Natter I was able to take some photos of the latest lot of these  which are ready for distribution. 

This type of bag is for family groups...Karen's husband is always on the lookout for toiletry items on sale :-) 

This is what is in a 'single' bag

This small 'wheely bin' is packed full of filled toiletry bags... members donate toiletries to help fill these bags

Now I'm still going to discuss donations etc but first I digress....

A little while ago DH and I drove down to IKEA. DH had some lifting to do ....

 I had some trolley pushing to do also....

At home a few days later, we worked as a team and assembled our shelves...voila!!

Most of the cubes are still empty...but for how long ???

Well when we went to IKEA, with K4BN in mind, we bought some other things ....

Some packets of finger puppets and some stuffed toys....

Because... my SIL's friend gave me some bags for the group...On closer inspection, the bottom of the lining in each of the bags wasn't sewn and the linings' open edges were a bit uneven... 

So I sewed across the bottom of the lining on each one and gave them all a 'good press'....problems solved! 

But I thought the bags would look even better with a 'surprise' in them...

So I put my IKEA bargains in some of them...Sometimes I wish I was a 'kid' again. I'd love one of these! :-)

On my mind...those less fortunate than me!

A throw I knitted for someone who was terminally ill...very sad

A throw I made for my friend Lee but her cat, Sabrina Maud thinks I made it for her!

I love to knit! Mum taught me when I was 7 and I knitted for years...then was delighted when knitting became 'cool and trendy' a few years ago...I have joined 2 groups who knit items for charities. The first group I joined was K4BN (Knitting for Brisbane's Needy) and the other group is an Australia-wide group Knit4charities. Recently my city, Brisbane, and a nearby city Ipswich had days where warm clothes and other items were handed out to needy recipients. The floods here in January have made the number of needy people swell and then there are the people who were affected by Cyclone Yasi.
Karen Croke who is the organiser of K4BN wrote yesterday of another group of people who benefited from donations of knitted goods. These people live in a caravan (trailer) park, Hope Community, but it's a bit different from the norm. I asked Karen if I could use her report as there is a poignancy about what happened...

'We did another "desperate needs" run today. Oh my goodness, I wish you could have seen the face of the manageress when she saw what we had. Then some of the residents came to help unload and you could see they were as keen as mustard to see what was in the boxes, but Lorraine didn't let them see till everything was offloaded. Then she got Peter to open a couple of boxes and the look on their faces was priceless. Not one of them took anything until Peter asked Lorraine if they could take either a beanie or scarf, to thank them for helping us unload. Would have thought we had given them a million dollars. There were tears, and that was mainly from the couple of men. One guy, about 35 ish said "I can't believe this is new, and handmade, I haven't had anything new since I was about 7!!" It was only a scarf, but the way he held that scarf then I helped him put it around his neck, and he stood about about 2 feet taller I think. Doubt whether he will ever take
it off!!
We had asked Lorraine if she had a use for a TV, we have had an old one here for ages,and she said "yes please", so we took that with us. She sent someone to get a particular lady who came up with her 13 year old son. This lady and her son have only just recently moved into this caravan park (not a normal caravan park, all for very needy people). Anyway the police had taken them to Lorraine to see if Lorraine had a van for them. She had been so badly beaten by her expartner she wasn't expected to live. She got help to get up here from Perth, to get away from the ex. The police have her booked in under a different name, so he can't find her. Anyway, they only have the very barest of essentials, basically what they could carry on the bus from Perth, so when she and her son came up Lorraine asked her if they would like the TV , mainly for the boy (Tyson) as he has a brain tumour and is not in good health. I think anyone who lives within about 20 km radius
would have heard her scream and he just stood there with his mouth WIDE OPEN, tears of joy running down both their faces...guess who joined in as well...yup me!!!  Lorraine was also trying to find some food for them, as they had no money to buy food, her Centrelink payment hasn't started yet...I so wanted to go to the nearest supermarket and buy them some essentials, but Lorraine said no, she had a couple of contacts and would get them some food by late this afternoon. I could go on and on about this place and the wonderful work that Lorraine and her volunteers do for these very needy people. Lots of babies, children and pregnant ladies there too!!!!
The units/vans are as nice as they can be with little finance coming into this group, but they all said the same thing, they are very, very cold places. So blankets, blankets, adult jumpers, beanies, you know all the usual will be very welcome there. When they are at their capacity, which it almost is now, they house up to 600 people...but not all of them are needy apparently. But Lorraine knows who is who, and she won't give to anyone who isn't needy...and give she will, no worries about her selling anything!! A wonderful lady, the biggest heart!
Another thing she did ask, and I know I say we can't take any more preloved items, but books/magazines she said are very much asked for, and she doesn't get many donated.Good condition books suitable for babies, right through to adult men/women, magazines etc will be appreciated by Hope Community too.
Anyway I will probably rave on about this place for ages, so had better go before I bore yu all!!
Thankfully its been a bit warmer today.'

Sure makes me grateful for what I have! I'm off now to get to work and knit some more scarves and beanies!...

Some sewing...

A number of the blogs that I follow describe sewing projects that are aimed at providing comforting items such as quilts, pillowcases and warm clothes to those who are in unfortunate circumstances. Jan from 'Oz Comfort quilts' and 'Sew Many Quilts-Too little time' is a human dynamo. Jan sews QAYG blocks into quilts. She has done this for the victims of the Victorian Bushfires in 2009, she has done that for the victims of the floods in 2011 and she is also starting to organise quilts to be sent to New Zealand for the people of Christchurch. People have sent blocks from all around Australia, NZ, UK, Europe and US to name some of the countries from where donations have 'flowed in'. Jan does have a job outside the home but she manages to sew together and bind an incredible number of quilts. Sometimes people donate quilt tops and Jan adds wadding and backing, then quilts and binds them. Just in the last day or so, Jan has sent 70 quilts to Emerald in Qld for distribution. An incredible effort!

Now I'll talk about my miniscule effort. The Sisters of Stitch group that I have started attending set a project last week for us. We were asked to decorate a Teatowel and these teatowels will be send to people affected by the floods and are meant as a 'we are thinking of you' type of gesture. My first thought was...'Teatowel???why would anyone want one of those? (lol) I mean you can't get too carried away with the decorating as aren't the teatowels still expected to be able to dry dishes???? I wasn't sure...I thought I might applique something on a plain teatowel...hearts? flowers'...or maybe embroider something...I even found my transfer pencil that I could use to transfer a design to embroider. Then I remembered I had some Maxine (the subversive senior citizen cartoon character) fabrics. So I ended up fussy cutting some motifs from this fabric, using appliquefix (which is fantastic) and then sewed buttonhole stitch around each motif.

I also had some fairy/cup/patty cake fabric in my stash. I also had found at the shops last weekend a pink teatowel with a woven design of cup/fairy/patty cakes...sweet! Cut a strip of the fabric and sew the strip on to the teatowel.



I cut a strip of the patterned fabric which I will sew to the bottom of the teatowel...nice and simple!

For the last 3 years, I've been preparing for retirement by adding to my stash of fabrics and yarns. Seems to have been a great help in this simple project. My gorgeous DH has just remarked quite favourably about my 'Maxine effort'. Hopefully it will bring a smile to the face of the recipient. In the next day I need to finish the other teatowel and organise to hand the teatowels over to a friend who can take them to the next meeting for me, as I'll be away in the US, sightseeing and generally helping the US economy! lol